Niklasson, Laila

2016 (English)In: Journal of Research in Humanities and Social Science, ISSN 2321-9467, Vol. 4, no 11, 73-79 p.Article in journal (Refereed) Published

Abstract [en]

The aim with this study is to highlight the role of administrators and present and discuss their communication efforts during change. The changes in question concerned restructuring of a partnership between a university and organisers of preschool to upper secondary, K-12, within Initial Teacher Education. Findings from interviews with operative administrators showed that there was successful communication effort and re-organisation was carried out. In contrast, the communication efforts offered an arena for unresolved issues concerning the partnership, the communication efforts were directed to a higher degree to external rather than internal stakeholders, and the national sense-making differed from the local sense-making. The study shows the importance of the administrator role in communication efforts during change in higher education partnerships. In their role they balance between keeping legally mandated structure and change. The conclusion is that it is essential to further study the role of administrators, especially communication efforts during change.